NAT - Strict - Xbox Headset

[Smack]

I have a 5G Gigacube, fast download but appalling upload speed anyway… 

I have an Xbox which works fine apart from the MIC / headset I can’t join any game chat parties. I noticed the NAT is set to strict, how can I change this on the router? It does not allow me to change the NAT type from what I can see!! You can’t raid without being able to talk to each other!! 

[XRaySpeX]

You may be finding yourself up against a limitation of EE's mobile network. The EE mobile network uses Carrier Grade NAT (CGNAT) resulting in a double NAT, which means that you don't get your own public IP address but share it with other users. So you can't be uniquely id'ed on the Net & therefore your LAN cannot be addressed from outside for unsolicited accesses. This is unlike fixed BB.

If this occurs there is nowt you can do to avoid it.

[mikeliuk]

Hi @Smack ,

I read reports that using a VPN can help with both the issues mentioned.

To use the VPN strategy, you will need to use a VPN which provides you with an IPv4 endpoint (most likely a dynamic IP address which will be yours for a time but comes from a pool shared by other users) and this would make your Xbox routable on the internet.

More strangely, I read on here that usage of a VPN can improve some transfer speeds (actually I think it was downloads) and it's currently a mystery why this should be true as the data must traverse the same service provider's infrastructure so it's unclear why a VPN would remove any bottleneck. Good luck! 🤓